Thursday, August 4, 2011

Omar Kelly in April: Vernon Carey will NEVER move to guard

Occasionally, I complain on twitter about Omar Kelly's lack of maturity, professionalism, respect for the profession of journalism, and general knowledge of the game of football.

This usually leads to devoted fans of Omar's screaming at me for being mean or rude, informing me that I am in fact being "a dick." I usually lose a dozen or so followers every time this happens, which I'll admit is genuinely disappointing.

Even more disappointing, however, is Omar's growing fan base that continues to be regularly misinformed about their beloved Dolphins from a man that seemingly has no interest in actually becoming a good source of knowledge of the subject.

But Omar is the worst kind of uninformed journalist in that he's also extremely arrogant. I don't know if he genuinely feels this way about himself, or he's actually that way because he's insecure and knows what he's lacking. I can't tell you.

A prime example of my issues with Omar came about recently when the Dolphins moved right tackle Vernon Carey to guard. It surprised many of us because Tony Sparano had previously rejected the idea, despite it seeming to be a logical move and one that many of us had called for in recent months or years.

A logical move, unless you're Omar, which is why he wrote this article in April, practically calling every single Dolphins fan an idiot for suggesting Carey move inside.

Not only does Kelly say it's not going to happen (which I have no issue with given Sparano's initial remarks on the topic), but he also talks down to Dolphins fans to a disgusting degree, practically berating them for even thinking it, insinuating they know nothing about how football works because they do think it, and speaking as if anyone that asked him about it was wasting his precious time.

Some of my favorite highlights:

"It gets under my skin every time I hear, or see someone talking about
drafting an offensive tackle and sliding Carey inside to guard because
it’s the dumbest most unrealistic idea EVER."

"Most of you proposing this slide have no idea how that whole process
works, or what it takes to become the effective pulling guard the
Dolphins desperately lack."

"Carey’s older now, and his body doesn’t react or respond like it once
did. He’s a drive-blocker, a bulldozer, not a pulling guard. That means
he’s a tackle, not a guard."

"So can we please squash the Carey can move to guard talk? Dead it!"

The lesson here is that the next time a beat writer berates you for something you think (which fortunately doesn't happen often because most of them have class), you don't necessarily have to believe them and just assume they know better than you. These guys can be wrong too, and some of them even have respect for their readers. Quite a novel concept.